Guitar FX Layouts

Here's a collection of vero (stripboard) and tagboard guitar and bass effect layouts that we have put together covering many classic and popular effects in growing numbers. Many of these have been posted on freestompboxes.org, so check that site out for great discussions on building your own effect pedals. Enjoy the builds and please also visit us on Facebook and Twitter

Thursday, 27 July 2017

The origins. Tone Bender MKIII, Tone
Bender MKIV. Same party different frock. Aside from the obvious
differences in the enclosure type of these pedals any true solid
definition of which is what in regards to circuit type is and will
always be a little bit of an ambiguous subject. The way I always made
sense of it in my head was in regards to the biasing. The early MKIII's
were choppy, heavy, clumsy, a fuzzy lump hammer. The later MKIV's were
smooth, dynamic, articulate, a distorted boxing glove. In between, you
have a foggy transitional period. Even with the those definitions in
place it never always runs true.

I think the best description of the differences between the MKIII & MKIV tonebender comes from non-other than the captain:

The origins. Tone Bender MKIII, Tone Bender MKIV. Same party different
frock. Aside from the obvious differences in the enclosure type of these
pedals any true solid definition of which is what in regards to circuit
type is and will always be a little bit of an ambiguous subject. The
way I always made sense of it in my head was in regards to the biasing.
The early MKIII's were choppy, heavy, clumsy, a fuzzy lump hammer. The
later MKIV's were smooth, dynamic, articulate, a distorted boxing glove.
In between, you have a foggy transitional period. Even with the those
definitions in place it never always runs true.

Couldn't find a video of an original, so I figure the best example of the pedal is going to be the DAM version. Want to be clear, this layout is for an original Tonebender MKIV not the DAM one as travis pointed out.

Here's four different versions of the DAM Fuzzsound, all of which are a mix of the MKIII & MKIV Tonebender.

From the captain:

Fuzz Sound MKIV (used to
be badged as the MKIII) Basically a pimped out version of the Tone
Bender MKIII and MKIV but with more tonal scope, more muscle and packing
space age features.
First up, a few quick words on the differences between a Tone Bender
MKIII and a MKIV. They do both use the same circuit blue print if you
will but there are subtle and noticeable differences to each pedal in
the tone department. Without over complicating matters, as I do what to
get to the point, the Sola Sound made MKIII and the MKIV basically sound
of their time. The early MKIII's sound fuzzy and choppy, later MKIV's
sound smooth and distorted. Then there's a blurry line in the middle.
Basically the biasing evolved to the point that the pedal became more
overdriven than fuzzy. Ya know, I guess, to suit the needs of Musicnauts
of the day.
The FS-75 is the blurry line in the middle and some. It's not a direct
replica of either but the flavour I have gone for is an all out balls to
the wall, big hair, big boobs, fat cars, fast food, dirty denim, dirty
hippies, 8-track stereo cranking, 3-D glasses rocking fuzz tone. To
quote, its: "1970 rollin' in sight"

Well I've been in a bit of Tonebender kick lately, so I decided to do a bunch of MKIII & MKIV variants. The Rotosound Fuzz was built by Sola Sound in the late 60's and is based on the MKIII Tonebender.

I get asked frequently about where to buy components from, and I know a lot of people, like me, have got together a huge stash of parts so t...

Note

Not all these layouts are verified and some are put together from unverified schematics. So if you have good luck, or bad luck for that matter, then please let me know by dropping a comment in the topic. Thanks.

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